IMAM KHOMEINI AND THE ENDURANCE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

By Abdullahi Danladi

Celebrating the Islamic Republic of Iran at forty-seven years of sustained struggle against overwhelming odds is not merely an act of political remembrance; it is a moral and intellectual necessity for any right-thinking person endowed with even an iota of humanity. Such a commemoration cannot be meaningfully undertaken without paying homage to Imam Ruhollah Khomeini (QS), the towering figure whose vision, courage, and spiritual clarity shook the foundations of global hegemony and decisively challenged the entrenched status quo of the twentieth-century world order.

Imam Khomeini emerged at a historical moment when Islam was being systematically confined to the private realm, reduced to ritual and spirituality deliberately severed from political agency, social justice, and resistance to oppression. Unlike many Shiʿi scholars of his time and beyond, Imam Khomeini refused to accept this imposed dichotomy. He articulated and embodied a holistic understanding of Islam in to one that integrates faith, governance, ethics, and resistance thereby restoring to Islam its revolutionary and civilizational character. What distinguished him most profoundly was not only his scholarship, but his understanding of his world and time, fearlessness and total, unconditional reliance upon Allah. This spiritual certainty endowed him with a rare moral authority that transcended borders, sects, and cultures.

Imam Khomeini possessed an acute understanding of the global power structure of his era. He recognized the mechanisms of domination embedded in imperialism, cultural subjugation, and political tyranny, and he responded not with compromise but with principled defiance. Through the application of Islamic values to concrete political realities, he awakened societies from a prolonged state of political slumber. His call was universal: a summon to rise against tyranny, to reject subservience to unjust powers, and to stand in solidarity with the oppressed and downtrodden wherever they may be found. In this sense, his revolution was not merely Iranian; it was moral, intellectual, and global in its implications.

Despite countless plots, assassination attempts, and sustained hostility from powerful adversaries, Imam Khomeini remained steadfast. His survival through decades of struggle stands as a testament to divine protection and the enduring principle that no force can extinguish a mission rooted in truth and sincerity. Ultimately, like all mortals, he returned to his Lord, passing away among his family after fulfilling a mission that permanently altered the trajectory of modern political thought and resistance movements.

Following his departure, leadership passed to his successor, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamene'i (DZ), whose stewardship has ensured continuity in vision and purpose. Under his guidance, the Islamic Republic has navigated an exceptionally hostile international environment marked by war, sanctions, economic siege, infiltration, and relentless propaganda. Yet, rather than collapse, Iran has demonstrated remarkable resilience. Its advances in education, science, defense, technology, and strategic autonomy testify to a model of development forged under pressure rather than dependency.

After forty-seven years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that it has come to stay. It continues to break new horizons of achievement, not in spite of adversity, but often because of it. Rooted in faith, guided by visionary leadership, and sustained by an acute awareness of global power dynamics and the persistent plots of those opposed to truth and human dignity, Iran’s experience stands as a living refutation of the assumption that resistance is futile.

In essence, the legacy of Imam Khomeini is not confined to history; it lives on in a political order that insists on moral sovereignty, social justice, and independence from hegemonic domination. The endurance of the Islamic Republic at forty-seven years is thus both a commemoration of past sacrifice and an affirmation of a future still being shaped by faith, resistance, and principled leadership.

My Allah the Almighty continue to bless and protect Sayyid Ali Khamene'i, the Islamic Republic and those that struggle in the path of establishing Allah's sovereignty on earth.